Robot system and robot operation method

Abstract

The present invention addresses the issue of providing a robot system and a robot operation method whereby, even if an issue occurs with an EOAT (a tool attached to the tip of a robot arm) and repair is required during application processing work by a robot, that repair does not take a lot of time or effort, errors do not occur during restoration work, and the restoration can be conducted quickly. This issue is solved by the present invention being configured so as to enable application processing work to be resumed by a user program that had been interrupted, after: returning back along the path recorded during progress by the robot tool; causing the tool to exit the work region; removing the cause of the error; then moving forward again along the recorded tool path to return to the point at which the error occurred.

The invention claimed is: 
     
         1 . A robot system configured to use a user program to perform application processing work while causing a tool attached to an arm tip of a robot to travel along a desired trajectory, the robot system comprising:
 a non-transitory memory configured to record a path based on a current position of the tool belonging to the robot while the tool belonging to the robot travels in accordance with execution of the user program, the recorded path not being necessarily exactly the same as a predetermined trajectory traced in accordance with the user program; and   an error occurrence position determination unit configured to, when the application processing work is interrupted due to an error occurring during execution of the user program, determine whether an error occurrence position is not beyond a predetermined reference position in the desired trajectory; and   a robot operation control unit configured to cause the tool belonging to the robot to execute the user program when an error occurs during execution of the user program and the application processing work is interrupted, trace, in a reverse direction, the path recorded during travel of the tool belonging to the robot to thereby cause the tool to exit from a work region in a case where an error occurrence point is at a location not beyond the predetermined reference point in the desired trajectory or cause the tool to exit from the work region by executing the user program until the end in a state where the application processing work is disabled in a case where the error occurrence point is at a location beyond the predetermined reference point in the desired trajectory, provide a user with an opportunity to repair a cause of an error, after removal of the cause of the error, disable the application processing work and execute the user program from the start using the tool for which the cause of the error has been removed, and enable the application processing work at a time when the tool reaches the error occurrence point again to cause the interrupted application processing work that is in accordance with the user program to resume from the error occurrence point.   
     
     
         2 . The robot system according to  claim 1 , wherein a position for resuming the application processing work can be finely adjusted forward or backward. 
     
     
         3 . The robot system according to  claim 1 , wherein
 in a duration until resumption of the application processing work after the occurrence of the error, the duration being while the path is being traced in the reverse direction and while the path is being traced in a forward direction, a height position for the tool can be vertically and finely adjusted, and   the height position for the tool is able to return to a height for an original teaching position when resuming the application processing work.   
     
     
         4 . A robot operation method configured to use a user program to perform application processing work while causing a tool attached to an arm tip of a robot to travel along a desired trajectory, the robot operation method comprising:
 a step of recording a path based on a current position of the tool belonging to the robot while the tool belonging to the robot travels in accordance with execution of the user program, the recorded path not being necessarily exactly the same as a predetermined trajectory traced in accordance with the user program;   a step of determining, when the application processing work is interrupted due to an error occurring during execution of the user program, whether an error occurrence point is not beyond a predetermined reference point in the desired trajectory;   a step of, in a case where the error occurrence point is at a location that is not beyond a predetermined reference point in the desired trajectory, tracing, in a reverse direction, the path recorded during travel of the tool belonging to the robot to thereby cause the tool to exit from a work region, and   in a case where the error occurrence point is at a location beyond the predetermined reference point in the desired trajectory, causing the tool to exit from the work region by executing the user program until the end in a state where the application processing work is disabled, and causing the tool to move to a repair station;   a step of removing a cause of an error at the repair station; and   a step of disabling the application processing work, executing the user program from the start using the tool for which the cause of the error has been removed, and enabling the application processing work at a time when the tool has reached the error occurrence point again to resume from the error occurrence point the interrupted application processing work in accordance with the user program.   
     
     
         5 . The robot operation method according to  claim 4 , wherein a position for resuming the application processing work can be finely adjusted forward or backward. 
     
     
         6 . The robot operation method according to  claim 4 , wherein
 in a duration until resumption of the application processing work after the occurrence of the error, the duration being while the path is being traced in the reverse direction and while the path is being traced in a forward direction, a height position for the tool can be vertically and finely adjusted, and   the height position for the tool is able to return to a height for an original teaching position when resuming the application processing work.